Shutter-happy creatives will love using the LightCollector app, a cool new crowd-sourcing smart phone tool that funnels all the best light-inspired photos out there into a one-stop database of lighting photography. The app was designed by lighting consultancy Light Collective and electronics brand Philips as a way for lighting designers, architects and creatives to collect and share their inspirations with their peers and colleagues. Using the app is extremely simple: Simply upload your photos and tag them with their location and any other relevant information, then watch them be added to a cool mood-board of fantastic images for everyone to see via the app or LightCollector‘s website. Other awesome features include geo-tagging so that you can view pictures have been taken around you, and like any good social media tool, you can comment and favorite images that you really love and may want to reference later.

The LightCollectoris based upon two lighting design fundamentals: the desire to be inspired and the need to document the things that inspire us so we can reference them later. Martin Lupton and Sharon Stammers, the founders of Light Collective, hope the project will become a resource for designers when pitching to clients: “We know that somewhere, in the depths of our not-quite-adequately filed hard drive we have that photograph we once took, in that city we once visited, of daylight transmitted through a stained glass window and creating an explosion of color on the floor. Finding the image allows us to explain what we are trying to achieve in our design.”

‘’We loved the idea of an inspirational light and lighting database as a way to spark and share creativity for each design challenge,” adds Matthew Cobham, who is in charge of lighting application at Philips Lighting. “We hope to support the design community in creating better and more ground-breaking solutions harnessing light that impact people lives through this shared inspiration.’’